New Drug Holds Promise Against Ovarian, Breast Cancer

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An international consortium of researchers has shown that an investigational drug, Olaparib, can reduce the size of tumors in women with advanced hereditary ovarian cancer with BRCA gene mutations.

New Drug Holds Promise Against Ovarian, Breast Cancer

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The Phase II ovarian cancer study results - as well as another Phase II trial in which Cedars-Sinai researchers also participated that evaluated the drug's effectiveness in the treatment of hereditary breast cancer - were published in a recent issue of Lancet.

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The two trials showed similar levels of response to the genetically-targeted drug in both breast and ovarian cancers with BRCA mutations.

"These are significant new studies. Olaparib is the first single-agent, non-chemotherapy treatment to show benefit to patients with cancers that result from BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations," said William Audeh, M.D., an oncologist specializing in cancer genetics at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and first author on the ovarian cancer study

"Until now, treatments for cancer have been selected based upon where in the body the cancer originated. These two studies suggest that it is the underlying genetic weakness of a cancer, not the organ of origin, that is the key to selecting effective therapy."

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